The Princess Bride (1987)

Movie Info

Great…a book

A boy (Fred Savage) is home sick and is visited by his grandfather (Peter Falk) who brings to him a story of fantasy and adventure.  The Princess Bride tells the tale of Buttercup (Robin Wright) and her unlikely love with a farm boy named Wesley (Cary Elwes).  Unfortunately, love between a girl and a farm boy cannot be and when Wesley is presumed dead and Buttercup is betrothed to Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), Wesley returns to rescue his true love with the help of a giant named Fezzik (Andre the Giant) and a man named Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) seeking to avenge his father’s death…can Buttercup be saved before it is too late?

Directed by Rob Reiner, The Princess Bride is a romantic-comedy fantasy.  The movie is based on William Goldman’s 1973 novel and received both critical acclaim and a relatively strong box office return.  The movie since its release has become a cult classic and is often listed in “Best of” lists for comedies.

True Love!

The Princess Bride is one of those movies that came out at the right time for me and many of my friends.  Fred Savage and I are the same age so the story was meant for us…but the joy of The Princess Bride is that it also has a second layer for adults (while not taking away from the kids’ tale like many movies aimed at kids and adults do).

Kids’ movies with jokes for adults are one of the more frustrating things for me.  If you go back and look as some of the great children’s movies before maybe the ’90s, they might have jokes that adults can enjoy, but they are the same jokes that kids will enjoy.  Now, movies have all these jokes that are meant for adults embedded in them.  The Princess Bride is more of a throwback to the older style in that the writing is just smart and not meant for young or old but for everyone.

Inconceivable!!!

It is the layered nature of the story that makes it a great movie.  You are being sucked in by the narration just like Fred Savage’s character and both the story of Buttercup and Wesley and the boy and his grandfather are touching.  Instead of taking away from the comedy, it feeds it and the absurdity and great dialogue surprisingly mix well with the film.

The cast is great.  As the framework, both Peter Falk and Fred Savage manage to develop their characters in a few scenes.  Cary Elwes is at his best as Wesley and the film introduces Robin Wright who had previously only really done the soap opera Santa Barbara.  Mandy Patinkin is a scene stealer as Inigo Montoya (“Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father, prepare to die!”) and Andre the Giant gets to play a real giant.  The movie also features the Chris Sarandon as the evil Prince Humperdinck, Christopher Guest as the six-fingered Tyrone, Billy Crystal and Carol Kane, Peter Cook, and the “inconceivable” Wallace Shawn.

Oh no! ROUS!!!

The visuals for the movie are also very surreal, but they are supposed to be the visuals of the boy.  This explains why some of them look weak…they are from the mind of a child.  I particularly like the shrieking eels and the rodents of unusual size.

The Princess Bride is as enjoyable today as it was when it was made in 1987.  I think kids will like and enjoy it because other than some toys in Fred Savage’s room (which I had many of those toys), the movie hasn’t aged as a fantasy.  Watch The Princess Bride again and share it with the next generation.  It is hard not to like this movie.